


Cloud Watching

by kutikue



Series: Shades (Nier & Kingdom Hearts) [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts, Nier Gestalt | Nier
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Self-Indulgent, Self-present, it's my birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 21:44:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21215552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kutikue/pseuds/kutikue
Summary: Yonah visits Gestalt sometimes to watch the clouds and remind herself that not all memories of her homeworld are bad ones.  In the ruins of an empty world, even sunny days can turn melancholy.  Luckily for her, Vanitas has a habit of tracking her down when she isn't at her shop.





	Cloud Watching

**Author's Note:**

> Birthday present to myself! This is what I honestly want with this pairing so much right now in Remnants, but there's so much groundwork to do before they get there. Luckily, oneshots are always an option. Yay oneshots!

The grassy knoll was more overgrown than ever, surrounded by brick rubble and unidentifiable debris. The river that had once fed her village’s waterwheel, and hadn’t Nier spent so much time, so many jobs tending to that ever important artifact, was wider now. It ran deeper and colder, its babbling more pronounced. The waterwheel that she used to look at from her window wasn’t even a memory, the wood long since rotted to nothingness, perhaps washed out to the ocean.

Anything that had been wooden was a long distant memory, only known to Yonah’s mind’s eye from her own knowledge. The old pathways could almost be glimpsed in between where the plains had tried to take back what ‘humanity’ had taken from them. There was a balder patch where Devola’s fountain used to be, and Yonah could almost hear the worlds that lovingly haunted her memories when she closed her eyes.

The twin’s betrayal, the fall of their world...it tainted everything. But there had been good memories too. And she would hold onto them. She had to, so much of her life with Nier was tied up into it, and she refused to let that be taken as well.

Softly she hummed under her breath. The clouds overhead were faint and wispy just the way she had grown up preferring. Light cloud cover meant less threat from shades, less to worry about. For everyone. It also meant the sun warmed her nicely as she lay in the grass, so she could wear her white dress with blue ribbons instead of her normal guild attire. She preferred to wear her guild attire most days, but it never felt right here, in the ruins of Gestalt.

With her eyes closed, she could pretend the empty space next to her was her older brother. In the brief time they had together between the Shadowlord’s castle and Gestalt’s Fall, they had laid here together, watching the clouds. Sharing some cookies, listening to the fountain and talking about little things of no importance. It was everything she had wanted for so long, to just spend time with Nier, to not be sick, to not have him work and worry and never have a moment for himself.

But the space was empty now. The fountain was a pile of rubble that would never babble again, Devola and Popela would never sing to her again. But maybe she didn’t need them to.

No one was left on this world, even after its restoration. Normally too shy to sing, Yonah sighed and quietly began, eyes still closed as the sun shone on her face with her hands pillowing her head.

“Kuwata tsunowo vralai  
Tzuriji pforaalekai  
Kwondzuvai undovartu wronduwail  
Tjortetei jeghi hiartro

innata ivelichpfulei  
Deftyoma sorepiyamei  
Schidiyako alefni fatalliliya  
Nic'hpisha unhoreselye

Utrashain aforenje kurasol  
Towari hatasei mic'hatasei tsufrallai  
Utrashain aforenje kurasol  
Towari hatasei mic'hatasei tsufrallai ilja  
Ullilya kojijichatjukaijai-wa nyame tetsumekri setsumekri linganmai  
Ulreri manja huteharraku-mu hanich lahadachfei lahadachfei shindulhwo  
...  
Kuwata-”

A shadow paused over Yonah’s face. Too long to be just a cloud her eyes opened and she sat up half in a panic, mind immediately jumping to shades even as she realized just as quickly that there weren't shades here anymore.

Well. She wasn’t too far off. Vanitas was standing much closer to her then his Personal Space would usually allow, arms crossed with his expression utterly unreadable. Yonah turned red, embarrassed at being caught singing and by the intimacy of actual eye contact; Vanitas without his helmet was still highly unusual. “Nini! W-what are you doing here?”

Vanitas took two steps closer and crouched, putting them nearly at eye level even as he was now well within touching distance.

“...What was that?”

Her hands flew up to cover her face, why did he have to pick now of all times to disregard Personal Space? She had gotten so used to that aspect of him, of their dynamic, but every once in a while-

A gentle tugging had her hands pulled from her face. Gentle and Vanitas. Vanitas initiating physical contact. Her face had been fairly pink before, it must have been cherry red now. Yonah’s eyes shone as she fought down the urge to whine, knowing he would only push the issue further to satisfy his sadistic tendencies.

“Yonah.”

“I don’t know.” She mumbled, breaking eye contact first. He was still holding her hands, so she let herself intertwine her fingers together with his. Physical contact was still a pretty big deal, for both of them. “Devola used to sing it to me. She was...she was Popola’s twin sister.” Vanitas’ grip tightened but he didn’t say anything. “It’s in a forgotten language. This world...lost a lot of what it was before it fell. Even though there were still several languages in circulation, some were so old that they couldn’t be translated at all anymore. Supposedly, the song is about Shiro and Kuro; A black book sent the world into Darkness and the white book will restore the world with the power of the Sealed Verses, restoring the world to Light.”

Yonah sighed as Vanitas turned her around, pulling her back against his chest and wrapping his arms firmly around her. “Who knows what its really about? Shiro and Kuro had nothing to do with our world falling, they were just another set of experiments.”

Vanitas leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Shut up.”

“Hm?” Yonah tried to tilt her head back to look at him, but Vanitas wouldn’t let her.

“...you came here to look at the clouds, right? So look at the clouds. Don’t think about stupid shit.”

Yonah laughed, a combination of surprise, sadness and gratitude. Thankfully she didn’t cry this time, Vanitas didn’t do well with crying.

“And how exactly did you know that?”

A scoff huffed past her ear, lightly ticklish. “You weren't in your shop. Where else would you be?”

“I could be in the field?”

“Nope. Didn’t leave a note.”

“I could be out on a job?”

“You have assistants for that.”

“Hm...a date?”

“You better fuckin’ not.” He growled that last one, grip on her tightening. She laughed a bit harder this time, all joy.

“Oh? Why not?”

“...”

“Vanitas~”

“No.”

“Hm?”

“Shut up.”

“Okay.”

“No, that’s not what I-ugh.” He pushed her away with a disgruntled noise, standing in a hurry. Still laughing, Yonah stood as well, coming up from behind and trapping him in a quick hug. He stiffened reflexively, she knew how he felt about physical contact, and normally she wouldn’t have but today seemed...special. Standing on tip-toe she quietly told him “No need to worry, the person I like hasn’t asked me on a date yet.” before cheekily turning around and sauntering off with a spring in her step, leaving an angry Vanitas with his mouth gaping looking after her.

“Who the hell!-”

“Not telling~”

“The fuck you aren't!”

Shrieking in delight, Yonah ran as Vanitas chased her around the ruins of the village, eventually ending up flat on her back,collapsed in a fit of giggles. Vanitas had her pinned, apparently supremely unaware of the fact that he was straddling her waist as he held her wrists in a firm grip near her head.

“Talk.”

“Hm...okay, but I'll only tell because it’s you.” As Yonah attempted to sit up Vanitas gave her a stern look. She pouted at him, trying for cute. “Let me whisper it in your ear?”

“Why? There’s no one else on this world?”

“Please?”

“...” Making a face, he relented. Yonah cupped her hand to his ear dramatically and whispered a name in his ear, watching in smug delight as he turned red, eyes comically wide.

“What, you didn’t know?” She batted her eyes playfully, as he sputtered, before laying back down in the grass and gently tugging on his arm to pull him down next to her.

“Cloud-watch with me?” She asked, suddenly shy.

Vanitas grunted before plopping down, pulling her over to let her head rest on his shoulder with his chin in her hair.

“...stupid. Of course I will.”


End file.
